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The Media, Pope Francis, and "The Changing Church"

10/28/2014

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Recently, thanks to the Synod on the Family, the Catholic Church has received a lot of press from the media. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, the media reported very little fact, and mostly just pushed their agenda on the Catholic Church. Homosexuality, premarital sex, divorce, and cohabitation were all topics at the Synod, so naturally there were easy journalistic opportunities to be had.

I’ve assembled a few examples of Articles floating around the internet regarding the Synod:

Great hooks, except for the fact that the Church is not locked in some Mortal Kombat match between Pope Francis and the rest of the Catholic Church. If you go to this site, you will see a picture of a plaque that traces the lineage of the popes.
This plaque is a list of every Pope in direct lineage going back to St. Peter. The thing about Papacy, which is so often ignored, is Papal Succession. Papal Succession does not just mean there will be another Pope after the current one dies – it means that the teachings of the Catholic Church will be upheld by the next Pope. And the next. And the next (andthenextandthenextandthenext…) 

There are indeed matters of opinion and simple traditions in the Catholic Church. These things are subject to change, such as the changes seen in the Mass after Vatican II. Some matters, however, are Dogmatic. Dogma is defined as “a truth appertaining to faith or morals, revealed by God, transmitted from the Apostles in the Scriptures or by tradition, and proposed by the Church for the acceptance of the faithful.” You see, the Catholic Church defines itself based on the belief that there is one truth, and that our lives should be formed around it. It’s inclusive of all people, but not all beliefs or ideas. In other words, in order to consider oneself Catholic, one must adhere to Dogmatic teachings declared as truth by the Catholic Church. One is free to pick and choose what to believe in his/her life, but choosing non-Catholic things and labeling them as “Catholic” is simply incorrect.

Something the secular world has a hard time accepting is that in these dogmatic matters, the Church will never change. Indeed, if the Church did change in these areas, it would cease to represent the Catholic Church, as it would…not be Catholic. As was put most poignantly in a homily I recently heard, the Church and Her teachings do not change, they develop. The distinction was made clear by St. Vincent of Lerins (died c. 445):

Is there to be no development of religion in the Church of Christ? Certainly, there is to be development and on the largest scale.

Who can be so grudging to men, so full of hate for God, as to try to prevent it? But it must truly be development of the faith, not alteration of the faith. Development means that each thing expands to be itself, while alteration means that a thing is changed from one thing into another.

The problem now becomes looking at Pope Francis and trying to view his efforts of development as efforts of change. (Note: If you do this, you’re gonna have a bad time.) You see, Pope Francis (believe it or not, media) upholds the Church teaching. Since the media focused so much on homosexuality and “gay marriage” during the Synod, I’ll quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

First, the Catechism states:

2357 "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."142 They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
Then:
2358 [Homosexual Persons] must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
This is the Church teaching that Pope Francis is upholding – and, contrary to what is presented by the media – you can indeed love the person without condoning the action.

Finally, Pope Francis, who I’m sure has been made aware of the “hubbub” caused by the Synod, made this statement in an address on October 25th. 



 “The family is being hit, the family is being struck and the family is being bastardized,”

He remarked on the error of the secular world’s view that “you can call everything family, right?”

 He went on to say: “What is being proposed is not marriage, it’s an association. But it’s not marriage! It’s necessary to say these things very clearly and we have to say it!”

He spoke of the many “new forms” of unions, describing them as “totally destructive and limiting the greatness of the love of marriage.”

Try as they might, the media just isn’t able to fit Pope Francis into their agenda-specific box. When Pope Francis first started his service as Pope, he didn’t have very many statements on controversial issues besides “lol you guys always talk bout dat” (paraphrased) – as time goes on however, Pope Francis and his statements make it incredibly clear: He’s Catholic – The Church is Catholic – The Catholic Church upholds Catholic teachings. He doesn’t care about your agendas. He’s too busy calling people to The Truth, like the pope before him, and the pope before him, and on, and on (andonandonadonandon). You know - doing pope stuff.

In conclusion:

Go away, media. We’re too busy being Catholic.

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The Battle of Lepanto--Why We Are Free

10/7/2014

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Let me tell you the story of the Battle of Lepanto.

The year is 1571.

The Ottoman Empire has been expanding by method of jihad (in other words, military conquest).

This is the extent of the empire at the beginning of the battle:

“The inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with their ships.”
“The Ottoman Turks yearned to bring all Europe within the dar al-Islam, the ‘House of Submission’ — submissive to the sharia law. Europe, as the land of the infidels, was the dar al-Harb, the ‘House of War.’” (From Lepanto, 1571: The Battle that Saved Europe by H. W. Crocker, III posted to CatholicCulture.org. Copyright by Morley Publishing Group Inc.)

Meanwhile, Christendom was divided by the Protestant Reformation. 

“The North is full of tangled things and texts and aching eyes
And dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise,
And Christian killeth Christian in a narrow dusty room,
And Christian dreadeth Christ that hath a newer face of doom.”

The scene is set.
On the Christian side we have a strong leader in Don John of Austria, a handsome 24 year-old son of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. At his command were 206 galleys, 40,000 oarsmen and sailors, 28,00 soldiers and knights, the thousands of rosaries said by faithful Christians as requested by Pope Pius V, the ministries of the religious and priests who accompanied the fleet, and the entreaties of the hosts of saints and angels in Heaven. 


On the side of the Turks, led by Ali Pasha, there were 328 ships, 77,000 men (including 10,000 Janissaries—Christian boys taken from their families as tax payment when they were about the age of 6. They were forced to convert to Islam, taught the art of war, and given the opportunity of advancement in the Turkish army.), and 50,000 oarsmen—many of them Christian slaves.
The Battle
Spies warned Ali Pasha of the Christian advance thus he had time to set up his fleet in a battle line. This fleet was more experienced and stronger than the Christian one. The naval battle began. The galleys fired cannon balls at each other. 

When ships got close, a floating hand-to-hand combat was commenced with scimitars, bows, and muskets on the Turk’s side and swords, pikes, and arquebuses on the Christian’s side. An unexpected strong wind allowed the Christian fleet to pin part of the Ottoman fleet against some shoals; this wind seems to have been a gust of the Holy Spirit. Some of the Christian galley slaves on the Ottoman ships revolted, incapacitating those galleys.
But Don John of Austria has burst the battle-line!
The Christian fleet was victorious. The Turks lost 170 ships, 33,000 men to death, wounds, or capture, and 12,000 Christian slaves. Christians endured 7,500 men killed and 22,000 men wounded.

The turning of the tide of the Ottoman advance is due to the prayers of the millions of Catholics in Christendom. October 7th, the day the battle took place, is now the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, and the month of October is the month of the Rosary.

Are we not facing similar battles today, if not even greater ones? Christians are being massacred and exiled from their homes where they have dwelt for nearly 2,000 years in Iraq and Syria by Islamic groups such as ISIS (or Islamic State). Christians in other Islamic countries continue to face anti-Christian laws that prevent them from freely practicing their religion on pain of imprisonment or death. Unlike in the 16th century when Lepanto was fought, these atrocities are met with apathy by the modern Western culture, which is experiencing its own anti-Christian secularization which thinks Christians cannot possibly be persecuted. The overt culture of death advanced by the Islamic State has just as strong a hold in the hearts of Westerners who accept abortion, assisted suicide, euthanasia and other life-denying practices such as contraception that continues to cause populations of developed countries to plummet to the point where future generations will collapse under the weight of the much larger older generations. Christianity itself continues to suffer from splintering and a lack of unity of believers. The odds seem to be overwhelmingly against the Church.

But we are the Church Militant. We are united as members of the Body of Christ. We are the Catholic Church. Just as 500 years ago Christians united in prayer to defeat the Ottomans, we can unite in prayer now to combat the spiritual and physical evils in our world today.

For more exciting information on the Battle of Lepanto: http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=7391

To read the poem G. K. Chesterton wrote about the battle: http://www.bartleby.com/103/91.html

To listen to a chant of the Templars as they march to war: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0d4qM7gCH8
Written by: Ashley Ladouceur and Marty Arlinghaus
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